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Apple delaying iTunes 11 until ‘before the end of November’ in order to ‘get it right’

If you were wondering where iTunes 11 was, you’re not alone. With one day left in October, it was coming down to the wire on Apple’s promised delivery date. Now, Apple says it is delaying the release of iTunes 11 in order to ‘get it right’.

The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right. We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface, and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November

Apple had promised that it was going to be here ‘in October’ back at the iPhone 5 event. The update is a ‘ground up reworking’ of the kludgy software that many feel is one of the worst pieces of Apple’s software puzzle. It is expected to include tighter integration with iCloud, a redesigned album and music browsing experience and a new user interface.

The previous version of iTunes has taken a lot of flack for being slow and awful to use. It was originally introduced by Steve Jobs as a part of Apple’s Digital Hub strategy, which featured the iMac as the central repository of all of your media. Since that time, connected devices like Apple’s iPod touch, iPad and iPhone have made the cloud the new hub, rather than a physical computer. The refactoring of iTunes to be more iCloud friendly will take advantage of that trend and hopefully alleviate a lot of the bloat while it’s at it.